Most people know that having some sort of cycling in their diet produces the best results. It may be carb cycling, it may be a cyclic ketogenic diet, it may simply be having occasional cheat days. However, all of these have one major drawback: They’re all process-oriented rather than goal-oriented.

The goal is to drop fat, right? The goal isn’t just to stick to a diet.

You assume that if you stick to the diet, you’ll drop fat. However, we all know this isn’t always the case. It’s not uncommon to see great results for a few weeks, then plateau hard despite sticking to the plan.

So how do you fix this? You add a concrete, short-term goal into the mix.

You see, it’s difficult to look at a huge diet goal and resolve to take it down in one fell swoop. I think that’s the main reason people obsess over the PROCESS of dieting rather than the RESULTS of dieting. If you stick to the plan, you get the gratification of knowing you stuck to the plan. If the only results you care about are your long-term fat loss goal, you don’t get any psychological pay-off until you reach your goal.

So here’s the fix: cycle your diet in one or two pound increments.

Let’s say you want to lose 20 pounds (from 200 to 180, for example). Make losing 2 pounds your most pressing goal. You diet hard for a few days, and when the scale says 198, it’s time for a carb-up or cheat meal. Then, simply diet hard until the scale reads 196 before your next refeed.

This approach is superior to the typical route of having one cheat a week. What if you lose the pound or two you were aiming for in 5 days? Or what if by the end of a week, you haven’t lose any weight at all? Having a short-term goal ensures your carb ups/refeeds/cheats don’t end up detracting from your goals.

This approach is also an easier route psychologically. You get the mental reward of making measurable, concrete progress toward you goal, and you get the physical reward of a break from the diet. If you simply have planned cheats, you get the physical reward of the food, but not the psychological reward of know the food was because you had accomplished something concrete.

So, there’s the tip. Use it to break through your dieting plateaus, and simply to make dieting a less stressful process.

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About Greg Nuckols

Greg Nuckols has over a decade of experience under the bar, a BS in Exercise and Sports Science, and a Master's in Exercise Physiology. He’s held 3 all-time world records in powerlifting in the 220 and 242 classes.

He’s trained hundreds of athletes and regular folks, both online and in-person. He’s written for many of the major magazines and websites in the fitness industry, including Men’s Health, Men’s Fitness, Muscle & Fitness, Bodybuilding.com, T-Nation, and Schwarzenegger.com. Furthermore, he’s had the opportunity to work with and learn from numerous record holders, champion athletes, and collegiate and professional strength and conditioning coaches through his previous job as Chief Content Director for Juggernaut Training Systems and current full-time work here on Stronger By Science.

His passions are making complex information easily understandable for athletes, coaches, and fitness enthusiasts, helping people reach their strength and fitness goals, and drinking great beer.

I guess just like the basic protocol. So I would do like psmf for several days until I hit my new two pound low. Then have a crazy refeed, wash rinse repeat? I’m 5’6″, 143 pound right now, 10% body fat, if any of that info helps in terms of specifics for numbers. But maybe I’m over complicating it. Just want to look deeper into this. Thanks!

Unfortunately I’m in a weight class sport (wrestling). So as terrible as it sounds, I’m only concerned with weight loss, regardless of where it comes from. I know that sound horrific just giving you the context.

If you’re time-limited (i.e. if you have to lose 10lbs in 2 weeks), then yeah, you’re going to need to take a pretty drastic approach. If you have a bit longer (i.e. a couple months), then you can get to the same weight with a less drastic approach, and probably hold onto more muscle in the process, and thus perform better when you reach your target weight.